Just call me a ‘Practical Creative’…

Some days I just get a little bit excited. Today is one of those days.

Today I am rambling on behalf of someone else in professional basis and other than being a little nervous it’s pretty  exciting. It’s a great little group that supports women in the creative world and today my first post has gone live.

I learnt something about myself in writing this, I am someone who is creative with all the wonderful things that go along with that title but at the same time hopefully encompassing some of the practical traits of the left brained folk among us. Coming from a creative family I am very aware that being creative and practical doesn’t always come naturally. I am labelling this as being a ‘Practical Creative’ which I think sums up pretty much who I am. And I bet, if I look hard enough there a whole heap of ‘practical creative’s’ out there…

So go on, take a trip over to the Creative Women’s Circle and have a read. And if you’re a female in the creative world then why not take a deeper look and possibly join. 

 

Originals…

 

I’ve been toying with the idea of doing prints for a long time, but the artist in me has found it hard to get past the idea of the original is always best. For me it’s a bit like the movies or TV series, the first original is always better than the remake, the Japanese version of The Ring, the Danish version of The Killing all better the first time around!

But, I am acknowledging as my hubby says ‘I’m stuck in my ways’ and sometimes change is just that, change. For someone who lectures university design students to get ahead and be disruptive and innovative, I know that new is sometimes just god damn fantastic. But there are some things that I just really like the original way. And hopefully when it comes to art, the old fashioned, out dated crafts never truly die and the originals stay coveted.

So, as there have been requests for a print version of some of my pieces, I have learnt to ‘re-train’ my brain on how to use the Adobe Creative Suite, because it’s simply not good enough to scan it and print it. Trying to keep the hand crafted feel is really hard, because frankly, these programs do amazing things and it’s way too tempting to play around. I want to keep it real and authentic looking.

Maybe, just maybe, prints will evolve into something that I love as much as the original, however something tells me that I will always think the original is best. A bit like James Bond, but there is certainly room for Daniel Craig. That might be it, there is room for both but I’ll just always favor the original.

What do you think? Original or reproduction? Or both?

It’s time to say yes, to yes.

I have an all time creative hero, someone who when I saw them recently up front and in person walk past me, I got all nervous, nudged the person next to me and went ‘Oh my God that is Beci Orpin’. Like a nervous school girl, the sort of thing I’d expect a love struck teenager do when they saw Brad Pitt walk past…well maybe that is showing my age, they’re more into One Direction or Zac Effron…the one’s who get all shy and not scream like lunatics.

Beci Orpin is the sort of illustrator, creatively incredible woman who just makes creativity look so simple and cool. Not that I have ever felt that it wasn’t cool, but she really makes it look cool. Beci (I use her first name, with ease, like she’s my mate…I wish) was talking at another incredible wonderful creative woman’s Big Hearted Business ‘un’conference, Clare Bowditch. This ‘un’conference as they call is a two day event open to all creative people, is aimed at bringing creative people from all arrays of talent together to discuss how to do what you love and make money from it. If you’ve not heard of it, have a look, there are great tips and bits to take from her website. Check out the inspiration bombs, you might see my little hands doing a paper cut accompanying a couple of very clever people’s advice.

Anyway, back to Beci. She was talking about making it in the creative world and to seriously badly paraphrase, she said ‘at the beginning, say yes to everything. Do the jobs that might not be that exciting and take advantage of any opportunities that come about’. So, since I heard this, I’ve taken that quite literally and am saying ‘yes’ to ‘yes’. So if I get contacted about a new market, I say yes. This weekend I went to Bendigo, it’s almost a two hour drive away and normally I might say that is a bit far to go and weigh up the pro’s and con’s but I didn’t have to think about it as I’m saying ‘yes to ‘yes. It was worth the drive, such a beautiful creative town, a true indie market and so many people who really appreciated the art of paper cutting. And I don’t mean that this was financially great for me, it was ok but it didn’t matter I got so much more out of it because it was an adventure that I might not have gone on, had I not said yes.

I am pretty excited about where saying yes is going to take me. New adventures hopefully might lead into new opportunities. So here goes. Yes! Yes! Yes!

By the way, I never knew who Zac Effron was or why he was so popular with the younger ladies, until I saw Bad Neighbor recently at the movies. I kind of get it now. And that film isn’t as bad as it sounds, there are some seriously funny moments. Or LOL as my younger counter parts would say…I think.

Getting ready to put on a show.

  

Last Friday night was the art show, my first ever art show. Now I am an organised person, to say the least. To do lists, colour coding, check lists and timing plans all come naturally to me. I have always been that way, it’s my way for creating some sense out of the chaos that is the rest of my world.

So in theory I was ready for Friday a week before the event. I knew what I had to get done on the days leading up and to be honest it wasn’t much but it was all vitally important. Of course none of those things went to plan, my dear friend put some flyers together for me, printing those was one thing after another, in the end I only had 50% of the designs but at least I had some. My specially cut glass arrived six hours before the show, but it arrived. Luckily as my star pieces would’ve just had to have been sticky tapped on.

I spent ages designing my wall, I got some old fence panels from a construction site down the road, my Dad drilled them and made sure I could easily put them up with cable ties, I had some lip frame holders that I was going to then screw in and rest my frames on so I didn’t have to use the hooks for the frames. All good, all sorted. That was until I was setting up during the day and they were testing the music for the show, it was so loud not only did I almost jump out of my skin but my frames fell off the wall! They didn’t break but that was just pure luck. So with three hours to go and absolutely no tools or anyone to help me I had to come up with another plan. Thankfully my 2.5 year old was playing with the drill when my Dad was putting the fence posts together during the week and made a few extra holes. So a few bolt thingy’s and some string my frames where finally up on the wall and reasonably secure. I just went with it and it all paid off. 

So besides things not going fully to plan and the installation next to mine that didn’t work all night but still had two scary men dressed in SWAT gear with guns and masks making me feel a little uncomfortable it was a successful night. I sold the one piece I didn’t want to sell, but that is always the way. And, hey, who can really complain about selling some of your art. It’s always a bonus.

For a few more photo’s instagram or facebook

 

To market, to market to buy a fat hen.

I recently read, one of the best ways to build your brand and get people to buy your product is to do a ‘market’, however in the same paragraph it also said, it will be one of the hardest days work you’ve ever done. That is no word of a lie.

My first market was a children’s market, I thought that this was a good target audience as I initially intend for my business to have a baby feel to it. First mistake. Children don’t get the beauty of paper cuts, and if we are lucky and their parents do, they don’t want to waste it by putting it in the kids room. Second mistake, unless you are selling cheap, mass produced baby stuff, a baby market is most definitely not the place to test out your first market.  The fee for my first market cost me over ten times what I sold that day. Ten times. No exaggeration.

But sometimes the day pays off. I’ve done one market recently where I walked in the door and thought ‘oh, no this is going to be a really long day’. It was an amazing day, I walked out that afternoon with only two pieces left and a book of orders to cut up that week. It was wonderful, inspiring and so encouraging I can’t tell you. Which is good, because the market I did last weekend, was a flop. Not as bad as the first one I ever did mind you. I did make a profit, sort of, well only really if you don’t take into account the time I spent creating all the beautiful artwork. I say beautiful, because I actually truly believe it is. But you don’t have to like it, that is the beauty of it. It’s personal.

On the upside, a couple of boutique little shops think my work is as beautiful as I do and now have a couple of little pieces in their stores. The Friendship Tree is even doing a window with my work. I can’t wait to see it. I’ll pop it up on my facebook page when I’ve taken my hundred’s of photo’s and my family are sick of being sent all the pictures.

I worked in advertising for years, in theory I know how to build a brand and get it noticed. If you are prepared to spend the money. But for now, I am enjoying doing it from scratch the old fashioned way, it is hard work. But hopefully one day it will pay itself off. But more importantly, more people will enjoy my paper cuts, maybe one day even as much as I do. One can hope.

Paper Chap

Heart of paper…

 

I am probably the least romantic person, ever. I’m not into valentines day, don’t like romantic dinners for two where you’re expected to look each other in the eyes whilst you eat a meal. Just give me the nice meal and the wine, no need for the eyes. Wedding anniversary’s are not celebrated, it’s NYE, which is virtually an impossible day/night to go out without loads of people crashing it. I even asked my hubby to marry me one night after work in the hallway, just so he wouldn’t feel the need to think of something romantic to do. He took three days to think about it, apparently because I was suggesting a four month engagement but that is another story all together.

But I do like cards. Even though I don’t like the whole romantic thing, a card is a beautiful, simple touch that never goes unnoticed in my eyes. That is simply all that I expect as a romantic gesture…sometime flowers are also a nice touch. But not carnations, they smell like cat wee.

Last year, I got given a new baby girl card for our anniversary accidentally as he didn’t open it to see what it said, just chose from the image on the front.  Then a few weeks later I got a birthday card with a pregnant chick on the front. Which when you are almost full term pregnant, didn’t go down that well. But after my hormones calmed down, I realised that cards are a hard choice for the sender to get right. Sometimes a simple and classic image is all that is needed.  I like hearts, they can be a really beautiful image, but more often than not they are too fluffy, pink and lovey dovey for me. So I designed my own heart card, it’s something I like. It’s good for a valentines, weddings, birthdays or just because.

It’s a non traditional, black heart but I think it’s rather nice. I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting it this valentines, but I’ll just be happy if he can find it in the stock room. If you like it, they’re on paperchap.com

Inspiration bomb

I had the privilege of being filmed this week for Clare Bowditch’s Big Heart Business website. My paper cutting accompanies Meredith Fannin’s Inspiration Bomb. Check it out. 

http://bigheartedbusiness.clarebowditch.com/bomb/meredith-fannin/